


When the Snow Melts

by NanakiBH



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Awkward Crush, Devotion, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Having Faith, Kissing, M/M, Romance, Snow, Soulmates, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings, past and future
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-28 22:34:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21399721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NanakiBH/pseuds/NanakiBH
Summary: As sure as the seasons, a promise to meet again.
Relationships: Demyx/Xigbar (Kingdom Hearts), Luxu/Master of Masters (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 49





	When the Snow Melts

**Author's Note:**

> There will probably be another khux update before I know it, so I'm glad I finished this before the game has the chance to retcon me. lol Stop dropping MoM lore! You're making me nervous!!
> 
> Anyhow, it started snowing recently and I was like, "Oh, I know what I have to do." So here's my annual snow fic.

Cold...

It was so cold. Luxu just wanted to stay in bed. He pulled the blankets closer around himself, but the cold remained, inescapable.

Something more than the cold had awoken him. There was a soft knocking on his door.

He blearily cracked open his eyes and stretched his legs, wincing when his toes touched the unpleasantly cold part of his bed that hadn't been warmed by his body. It was too early for a meeting with the Master, so he figured that it had to be one of the others. There was no good reason for them to be rudely rousing him when it was so early and so cold, so a part of him worried that something might have been wrong.

He got up and slowly padded to his door in his pajamas, briskly rubbing his arms to warm himself.

When he opened the door and lifted his head, he went pale.

“Luxu, I have something to show you,” the Master said, pushing his way into the doorway.

Luxu wasn't emotionally prepared to be seen by the Master while he was still wearing his pajamas. He hadn't even brushed his teeth yet. His breath probably smelled bad. His hair was a mess. He hadn't cleaned his room in a while. There were potentially embarrassing things laying around out in the open where they could be seen.

He was screaming on the inside.

It could have been worse, Luxu tried to tell himself. If the weather had been warmer, he might have gone to bed without pants on. All of the books on his floor were just for research and his diary was still tucked safely in his bedside drawer. Unless the Master went rummaging, he probably wasn't going to stumble upon anything truly devastating. He was safe for the moment.

Anticlimactically, the Master didn't even seem to be bothered by his appearance nor the condition of his room. He had that look in his eyes – that look he got when his mind was preoccupied by something. There was a chance he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings at all.

“It's really early, Master. What is it, all of a sudden?” He hoped he didn't sound like he was bothered. The intrusion was sudden, but Luxu was always happy to see him.

“Put your coat on and come outside.”

That was abrupt...

“Um... Do I have enough time to put on the rest of my clothes and brush my teeth...? You kind of just woke me up.” Again, he hoped that the Master didn't think he was calling him rude. Even though Luxu had no way of knowing that he was going to suddenly show up, he felt like he should have already been awake and ready to go.

The Master took a breath.

“Fine.”

Ah-- He sounded impatient.

“I-I'll just be a second, I promise,” Luxu said. He stood there, wringing his hands, waiting for the Master to leave so he could change his clothes, but he was still standing there in the middle of his room, exuding a terrifying amount of anxious energy. Luxu's palms started to sweat. “If you wouldn't mind, I'd kind of appreciate some privacy...”

“Oh.” The Master blinked, then nodded. “Right. Of course. I'll be right outside the door. Be quick!”

Still without providing an explanation, the Master disappeared.

Whatever it was, it had to be urgent... But the Master frequently had his own idea of what qualified as 'urgent.' Luxu got the feeling that it probably wasn't something anyone else would have considered serious. But, since the Master thought it was serious, he felt inclined to take him seriously. It mattered to the Master, so that was all that really mattered.

Luxu dressed quickly and hastily tucked away a few of the things on his floor just in case the Master unexpectedly reentered his room. The bathroom was on the other side of the clock tower, so he gave up on the hope of brushing his teeth; he knew that as soon as he left his room, the Master was going to immediately whisk him away. That was... fine. He'd just have to keep his head down. It wasn't like they were going to kiss or anything... It was silly for him to even be so concerned about it...

Just like he expected, once he opened his door, the Master was already frantically ushering him away. Luxu was still too sleepy to keep up with his energy, so he let himself be led, barely even paying attention to where they were going.

They took the lift up.

Up...

Up......

Up.........

All the way to the top floor.

Stepping out on the top floor always made Luxu feel lightheaded, even if he knew that he would be safe in the Master's presence. However, the first thing he noticed, even before the dizzying height, was the frigid temperature of the air. Up that high, it had to be even colder than if they had been on the ground.

“Tada!” the Master cheered excitedly, gesturing out at the town as he stood dangerously close to the edge. “Look, Luxu, look! Open those sleepy eyes of yours, will you?”

“Oh, it's...”

It was snowing.

Down below, he could see that the town was already covered in at least an inch of it and the snow was still continuing to fall. The air was dense with large, fluffy snowflakes that lazily drifted down from the white sky.

Luxu went to the Master's side, fearless of the edge, and extended a hand toward the sky, watching as a few flakes fell into his palm. Before he brought back his hand, they'd already melted in the warmth of his palm.

The whole sky was full of those beautiful snowflakes, but they were so fragile...

“Do you know why it snows?” the Master asked.

Luxu looked up at him, but all he could see was his smile. His question was probably rhetorical, but Luxu answered, explaining to the best of his knowledge.

“It's because of moisture in the atmosphere. When the atmospheric temperature drops below zero, the water in the clouds turns into tiny ice crystals – snowflakes. More moisture in the air means bigger snowflakes, like these ones,” he said, catching another snowflake in his palm. Like the others, it also quickly melted, turning into a droplet on the surface of his leather glove.

“Water's amazing, isn't it?” the Master said. “It can become so many things. It can give life and take it away. It can be a wrathful wave... Or, it can be one of these harmless little things.” He lifted his hand and one of the snowflakes landed delicately on the tip of his finger as if it had arrived at his beckoning. It stayed, unmelting, in perfect crystalline formation.

“Is this a lesson?” Luxu asked.

“It's not a lesson... I just thought you'd enjoy seeing the snow...” The Master tilted his head, pouting. “Was I wrong?”

“N-no, you're right! I like it,” Luxu insisted, feeling his face getting hot. “Really. I'm... happy you woke me up to see it. Thank you, Master.”

Even though the Master said it wasn't a lesson, Luxu couldn't help but feel like there was something else he was trying to tell him. Sometimes, it seemed like he was being roundabout on purpose as a way of encouraging him to figure out how to ask the right questions.

Luxu supposed that the Master was like the snow himself. Perhaps that was what he meant. He surely possessed a magnificent and fearsome power, but he and the Foretellers had never witnessed it. For the ones he loved, he was a snowflake.

Breathtaking, inspiring...

Transient...

Luxu wanted to reach out. He wanted to hold on to him, to prevent him from inevitably leaving like the snow in the rotation of the seasons. But he understood that to do so would have been equally as futile. Eventually, the Master was going to leave. Even Luxu's tightest embrace couldn't stop him from melting away. It had already been written, so it was decided.

It was just so hard to accept...

But Luxu accepted it. There was no other choice.

As he looked up at the Master's smile, he wondered how many seasons he would see before he'd see that snow again.

He was really, truly grateful that the Master had shown it to him. He wouldn't forget that moment. The Master's black silhouette and the town, covered in white. The cold, and the heat of his cheeks. Like every moment he spent together with him, his heart had already prepared a special place for the memory.

“Hey, what're you looking at me for, silly? You're supposed to be looking at the snow.”

Luxu nodded, though it probably looked halfhearted.

Suddenly, he found himself enveloped in a firm embrace, pulled into a hug that lifted his heels off the ground. At first, he didn't even know how to respond. He thought that touching him was out of the question – that the Master would slip right through his fingers if he even tried. His embrace caught him off guard, overwhelming him like a powerful wave. And yet... There was still such gentleness in that strength.

When Luxu regained his senses, he leaned into the Master's arms and pressed his face against his chest. He hoped that he was being welcomed to do so...

He heard the Master laugh softly. “It just looked like you were cold...”

Luxu nodded again, a little less stiffly. It almost sounded like the Master was making an excuse for himself... It was hard to say for sure.

The Master pulled back slightly and looked down at him. “When the snow melts, where does it go?” he asked.

“Back into the atmosphere...?”

“It's just water, you know. It's everywhere. Even when the snow melts, it's not really gone.” He held his chin with a ponderous look. “Right? Isn't that how it works? I think that's how it works...”

Luxu laughed.

He hoped that the Master wouldn't think that he was laughing at him. He was just so funny and cute sometimes.

When the snow melted and disappeared...

It would just go back up to the clouds. And then eventually it would return in another form, different yet unmistakably the same.

Luxu wondered if that was supposed to be the Master's way of comforting him. To protect the future, there were things that he simply couldn't tell him. In the strangest way, even though he didn't understand, Luxu understood.

He wasn't going to disappear forever.

Of course...

Luxu was going to miss him, but he wasn't going to have to miss him forever.

The Master was eternity. He was the deepness of the ocean.

Even if he left, he'd be with him.

“You look happy,” the Master said.

Realizing that his arms were still around him, Luxu momentarily glanced away, embarrassed. After taking a breath, he lifted his head and smiled up at the Master warmly.

“You're amazing.”

“Pshh... Try telling me something I don't know,” the Master said. Nonetheless, he appeared to be very flattered. His attempt to dismiss the compliment just made Luxu smile harder.

That would have been the perfect moment. The mood was right. If he wanted, he could have stood on his toes and closed his eyes and the Master probably would have gotten the idea.

Two fingers gently lifted his chin. Luxu's heart leapt to his throat when he looked up and saw the Master looking down at him with a tender fondness in his eyes. It was almost too much. Luxu didn't feel worthy to be looked upon in such a way, but he couldn't allow himself to look away, either. He held the Master's gaze, only closing his eyes when his face came closer.

Luxu waited, lips trembling, but the only thing he felt was the touch of something soft against his forehead.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw the Master grinning like the cat that got the canary. He tricked him into thinking that he was going to give him more than a peck on the forehead. Little did the Master realize, however, that was more than Luxu had ever expected. He'd been held by him... His lips had touched his skin...

He felt fulfilled. He was ready for the afterlife.

“Are you still cold?” the Master asked.

“Just a little...” Not as much as before. His flustered heart had raised his temperature.

“My work's done for now,” the Master said with a yawn. Stepping away, he perched himself on the edge of the tower and looked back at Luxu from over his shoulder. “I can stay here a while.”

Luxu sat down beside him and watched the snow rain down.

* * *

“Hey, do you think we could sled down this mountain?” Demyx asked, staring down the side of the steep, snow-covered mountain.

“Did you bring a sled?” Xigbar asked.

“Maybe I could use my sitar.” He sounded serious.

Xigbar gave his shoulder a light shove, encouraging him to keep walking. “Get a move on. We've got work to do.” They hadn't come to the Land of Dragons to have fun.

“Work?” Demyx looked at him incredulously. “You've gotta be kidding... Haven't I done enough?”

“You did something?”

Demyx pouted.

“Waking up was very exhausting. I'd like to go back to sleep.”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Xigbar slowed his step and turned to look at Demyx, prepared to bargain with him. “Alright, how about this? I'll do your share of the work. I won't ask for anything in return. I just wanna know what you plan on doing instead.”

Demyx nodded and confidently crossed his arms over his chest.

“I'll watch.”

“You mean you'll have my back?”

“Something like that. I'll keep my eye on you.”

His answers sounded evasive.

Xigbar still had questions, but his main question had been answered.

He wasn't going to expect help from Demyx. But that was alright. He knew that he was capable of handling any situation by himself. The Master was always with him, watching over him, so he knew that there was nothing he couldn't handle. He wasn't afraid of failure. Every game over came with an opportunity to try again. He figured that Demyx could probably learn something by watching him work.

“Come on. Let's find our objective. It's freezing out here.”

“Want me to warm you up?” Demyx asked, looking at him from the corners of his eyes with a sly smirk.

“What, you wanna hold hands or something?”

It was supposed to be a joke, but Demyx was holding his hand a second later. He beamed, smiling from ear to ear. Even through their gloves, Xigbar felt the heat from Demyx's palm warming his numb fingers.

Demyx didn't let go of his hand. As they headed up the mountain, it began to snow even though there didn't appear to be any clouds in the sky.

Despite himself, Xigbar reached out with his free hand.

Even though his hand was cold, the thick flakes quickly stained his glove.

“Whoa, these snowflakes are so huge!” Demyx laughed cheerfully. “It must be cuz I'm here. There's always more H2O when I'm around, y'know? Hydration!”

He raised a hand to the sky.

A snowflake softly landed on the tip of his finger and didn't melt.

Xigbar looked at him.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hm?”

When Demyx looked his way, Xigbar kissed him.


End file.
